You Cannot Serve God and Twitter

Jesus said to his disciples:

“No one can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.--Matthew 6:24

This excerpt from the Gospel reading for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary time calls to me today and I am going to reflect upon its meaning to me and hopefully what it possibly means to the one or two who actually read this.  The readings all contain the elemental themes of trust, hope and fidelity.  The main theme I am going to focus upon is fidelity.  

This passage from the Gospel this Sunday, without fail, always captures my attention.  I find that one of my most egregious sins is that I find myself often attempting to serve two masters.  I will most often praise the Lord with my lips but my hands and feet will serve the needs of money, food, lust, sloth or any other temptation which captures my heart in moments of weakness.  Which is essentially why this Gospel calls to me so much; it convicts me of my sinfulness and calls me to confession.  Any one who reads my material will notice that I focus tremendously upon love and confession.  I truly believe that these are two things that will make or break a Christian, well it will make or break any body.  But today, I want to zero in on fidelity.  

The scriptures tell us that God is faithful.  As God is perfect and love, his faithfulness is true and everlasting.  His love and faithfulness do not and cannot change.  God teaches us how to be faithful but it is our fallen nature that causes our eyes to shift.  But when we passages like the passage from Matthew, it calls to take a few minutes and examine our consciences.  It is not an unfair or impertinent question whom we are serving.  In fact, it can be a tremendously helpful spiritual exercise.  Who are we serving?  

I know I often serve pride and wealth (mammon) when I should be serving the Lord.  Recently, while reflecting upon the scriptures, I noticed that I began to care more for the number of twitter followers I had rather than the message I wished to convey. 

My twitter brand is nearly exclusively Catholic, pro-life and orthodox.  While convincing myself that my message somehow correlated to how many people followed me, I thought a number was a measure of success.  For the while, I ignored this notion because I was writing pieces that praised the Lord and called people to holiness.  This is a good message, but the messenger must also be moved to praise the Lord and receive the call to holiness.  And thus, I remember the words of Isaiah from this Sunday’s readings, “I will never forget you” (Is 49:15).  The Lord remembers me and I should remember him.

Before returning to the central theme of fidelity, I would like to take a few lines to reflect upon the corollary themes of trust and hope.  Each of the readings speaks to trusting God and hope in his everlasting promise (to be faithful).  The prophet, Isaiah, speaks about God remembering us despite ourselves feeling forsaken.  Remembrance is just a small way to remind us that God still cares and loves us even though we are in times of grief, trouble, or suffering.  The Lord remembers us ‘even if the healing does come’ (Kutless, “Even If”) that we have asked, cried and prayed for. 

Jesus tells us in the Gospel that the Lord provides for the birds, clothes for people, drink for the thirsty.  All he asks is that we “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you.”  That is the Lord’s promise for us and we are asked to trust.  Then there is hope.  We can have hope for tomorrow because the Lord also tells us, “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.”  That statement reminds me again to live for the Lord today.

Loving the Lord and serving the Lord is about fidelity, trust and hope.  We must be faithful to the Lord and not betray him by serving mammon or any other distraction.  We have to trust that his promises are true.  And we hope.